DAMA satellite communication networks have enjoyed widespread use in a variety of applications, such as, but not limited to military environments. In certain military applications, there is an established requirement issued by the Department of Defense, known as MIL-STD-188-183, that sets forth interoperability standards with which (5 KHz and 25 KHz UHF) satellite communication equipment must conform. A reduced complexity example of such a SATCOM network is diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 1 as comprising a (geosynchronous) communication satellite 10 and a plurality of (mobile) terrestrial transceivers/radios 12.
In such as network, participation and operation of each user's radio is controlled by way of a dedicated device, known as a DAMA channel controller 14, which is typically a relatively large (rack-mounted) and complex piece of equipment, that is separate from the deployed radios, and considered by users to be difficult to configure and operate. In addition to the complexities involved in installing and operating the DAMA controller, configuring the field-deployed DAMA radios themselves are also a very demanding task, as these radios rely upon a very complex and time-consuming ‘orderwire’ that is transmitted by the DAMA controller. Indeed, setting up and configuring the radios of a conventional DAMA network can take up to ten minutes or more—which can be a major shortcoming in a military environment, where speed of deployment and ease of use are critical to mission success and safety.
In an effort to reduce the difficulty in configuring and operating the deployed radios, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has proposed an Integrated Waveform (IW), that has been designed to take advantage of the higher data rate, continuous phase modulation (CPM) modems used in newer radio architectures, which offer a substantial improvement (e.g., doubling) in throughput of existing satellite channels. Unfortunately, this newly proposed integrated waveform is complex and does not address the above-referenced shortcomings of conventional DAMA controllers. Indeed, it has been found that IW controllers are more complicated to operate than existing DAMA controllers. Moreover, deployment of IW-based networks is not currently expected to take place for several more years.